Media Prima Berhad today emerged as the sole owner of all the country's free-to-air television stations after its 100 percent acquisition of the ntv7 Group for a total of RM90 million.

Company chairperson Mutalib Abdul Razak made the buyover announcement at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.

"We believe the acquisition of ntv7 is a good investment for Media Prima given ntv7's strong brand name which will certainly add value to the group," he said.

The ntv7 Group comprises Natseven TV Sdn Bhd - owner of the popular private TV station ntv7 - Synchrosound Studio Sdn Bhd and Encorp Media Technology Sdn Bhd, both which owned and operated the currently defunct WaFM radio station..

Media Prima had before this acquired the country's remaining free-to-air private television stations - TV3, 8TV and the now defunct Channel 9, which is expected to resume operations by the first quarter of next year.

The conglomerate is also involved in the newspaper publishing industry owning a 43 percent equity interest in the one of the country's largest concerns, the New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Bhd, which publishes the English language dailies New Straits Times and The Malay Mail as well as the vernacular Berita Harian and Harian Metro dailies.

Media Prima, the country's biggest media conglomerate, is the only organisation that has interests in all three mediums - print, radio and TV. It is believed to be linked to key ruling party Umno.

Other media owners such as MCA - the second biggest political party in the ruling coalition - owns three major newspapers and two radio stations, but no TV stations.

Meanwhile, reclusive tycoon Ananda Krishnan owns satellite TV station Astro, which has 54 channels, and eight radio stations, and another tycoon Vincent Tan owns one newspaper and MiTV. The remaining radio and TV stations are mostly government-owned.

Different editorial slant

Asked if there would be a change in ntv7's editorial policy, Media Prima's group managing director and chief executive officer Abdul Rahman Ahmad said at today's press conference that the company has 'no major plans' to change the policy.

"We are committed to retaining the separate brand name of ntv7 [...] obviously, there are certain things we want to improve and continue to strengthen but at the end of the day our investment in ntv7 was because it has a very strong brand," he said.

Abdul Rahman said that although all the four television stations owned by the company would share TV broadcast footage to save costs, each will continue with their own editorial direction.

"8TV runs their own Malay news [...] ntv7's My News Network continues to operate. I really don't see any major issues about it," he said.

TV3, ntv7 and 8TV collectively account for 48 percent of all television's viewers including those of pay-to-view television.

Ntv7 by itself has an eight percent share of TV audience and draws in 30 percent of total FTA television advertising expenditure.

Opinion: Media Prima - rise of a media monopoly